Alpine Style

As I write this, it's been almost month since this adventure went down, but it feels worthy of sharing, as it’s one of the most terrific slopes in the range.  On the 22nd of May, Jason Kruk, Hayden Kennedy and I left the car at 3:45 and headed towards the East face of Victoria.  That might seem early to some, but in hindsight, it turned out to be a couple hours too late for prime conditions.  Never-the-less, we cruised up the Plain of Six Glaciers on a firm crust, and some steep skinning brought us to the broken hanging glaciers below Mt. Victoria's ultra classic East Face. As far as we knew, two other parties had skied it already this year, and Lake Louise patrollers, and others too, had been hitting it for decades.  I would be surprised though if the total descents made down this beauty were in the double digits.  The snow on the face was getting alarmingly sticky in the morning sunshine, but we went for it anyways, pounding a steep staircase directly to the 3464 meter (11 364 feet) summit. Some cloud cover provided respite, and we frequently switched leads as the thinner air and warm temps made the ascent more challenging.  I’m guessing that the average angle for 500 meters was about 50-degrees, with passages pushing into the high fifties.  Naturally the exposure and the views were spectacular! 

 

On the descent, the snow was a little on the heavy side, but still really fun.  Tow hours earlier and we would have nailed the timing for the corn cycle.  We must’ve been at least an hour on the face itself as every turn required focus.  Finally we we’re off it by noon and the intensity of challenging turns above a massive ice / rock cliff ebbed.   Slushy turns in down the glaciers and gullies below soon had us back to the car and planning our next adventure.  It was great to get out with Jason and again, and Hayden for the first time.  Looking forward to many more!

 

The east face of Mt. Victoria as seen from the approach Hayden and Jason on the summit

 

 

Jason making steep turns!

 

More steep turns!

 

Jason jump turning with Mt. Lefroy in the background

 

Nearing the end of the steeps.  Only 1200 more meters to descend.